NEW
YORK (Kool & The Gang PR team) "This Reloaded CD features ASHANTI,
BLU CANTRELL and LI'L KIM -- so we've got quite a few divas on there!"
- Kool
Kool and the Gang celebrates 40 years together with an
amazing package featuring superstar guest appearances by artists
including, ASHANTI, BLU CANTRELL and LI'L KIM. The group has rounded up
numerous hit acts to appear on revamped versions of their best-known
songs, including Angie Stone,
Jamiroquai and Jamelia. With 11 tracks,
many artists faithfully pay homage to the originals, and a handful have
stamped their own mark on the "Kool" classics. Sean Paul's "Ladies
Night" is an instant smash,
Youssou N'Dour and
Lauryn Hill collaborate
on a lovely cover of "
Summer Madness" and Lisa Stansfield's jazzy "Too
Hot" is inspiring.
The
New Jersey Pop and R&B legends have recruited a host of
chart-topping stars on The Hits: Reloaded available on KTFA
Entertainment/Sanctuary Urban. Kool notes: "We were lucky to get
BEVERLY KNIGHT, JAMELIA, ATOMIC KITTEN and JAMIROQUAI which was
amazing. The BLACK EYED PEAS couldn't fit their schedule around ours --
We'll save that one for the future!"
From "Joanna" to "Too Hot"
to "Jungle Boogie," the song that awakened Generation X to old-school
funk when Quentin Tarantino included it in "
Pulp Fiction" Kool is
forever cool. The seven-piece Gang, which is still led by Robert "Kool"
Bell more than 40 years after he formed the group with his Jersey City,
N.J., pals, tours and now has released a new CD with many of their
peers and new school artists.
Kool and the Gang have sold more
than 70 million albums worldwide during the course of the band's
history. Songs such as 'Celebration,' 'Cherish,' 'Jungle Boogie' and
'Ladies Night' have brought the band two Grammy Awards and seven
American
Music Awards.
The group has 25 Top 10 rhythm and
blues hits, nine Top 10 pop hits and 31 gold and platinum albums to
their credit. As the band continues to tour into its fourth decade, it
still enjoys enormous popularity.
Consisting of Robert 'Kool'
Bell, Khalis Bayyan,
George Brown,
Dennis Thomas and Charles Smith.
With the release of its newest album, the band has expanded its' sound.
'The future of our sound will be an infusion of classic Kool & the
Gang with hip-hop,' said band member Bayyan. 'I feel that our longevity
in the music industry is a result of our relentless pursuit of
excellence and consistency. And after 40 years together we're having
more fun now than ever -it just gets better and better."
SO they
now invite their fans to "
Cherish" the sound of Kool & the Gang
today. Formed in the mid-1960s, the pop-R&B group - best known for
its upbeat song "
Celebration" - has re-created itself several times
over the decades to keep pace with an ever-changing music scene.
More on Kool:
They
started in Jersey City as a jazz ensemble and after signing with DeLite
Records in 1969, the group shifted to a funkier sound, coming into its
own with 1973's "Wild and Peaceful." It continued as a powerful funk
force until the late 1970s. In 1979, the band exploded into the
pop-R&B genre on the strength of songs like "Joanna," "
Cherish" and
"Fresh."
Kool and the Gang, the band that went from hard funk
and R&B in the '70s to pop hit-makers in the '80s consistently
performs their hits including "Jungle Boogie," "
Ladies Night" and
"Hollywood Swinging" to later cuts like "
Celebration" and "Emergency."
Big Across the Pond:
While
band still tours the U.S., they've enjoyed a recent popularity surge is
in England "Hollywood Swinging" may be one of their signature dance
floor anthems, but for Kool & the Gang, the world's most swinging
locale might be England instead.
In the U.K., the Gang is very
much a going concern. Commissioned by the band's British label, "The
Hits: Reloaded" is the latest example of musicians finding more acclaim
abroad - a trend that began with jazz stars like
Dexter Gordon in the
'50s.
There's always been a special link to the U.K. - "British
folks were the fans outside the U.S. that really bought into our
sound," says
Dennis Thomas. The Gang was even the lone American group
to be included on the 1984 Band-Aid single "Do They Know It's
Christmas?"
During the '90s, the Gang recorded "
Unite" and
"State of Affairs," which featured electronics and guest rappers
married with horn-heavy groove.
Formed in Jersey City in the
mid-'60s around the core of Robert "Kool" Bell and his brother Ronald
(a.k.a. Khalis Bayyan), the Gang was a group of former jazz musicians
who made the transition to R&B. Thomas, in fact, was one of the
early leaders of the band, inspiring Ronald Bell to first pick up a
saxophone.
They created some of the funkiest singles of the
'70s, charting with percussive, chanted throwdowns like "Jungle Boogie"
and "Hollywood Swinging." A more mainstream audience arrived and in
1979, the smooth "
Ladies Night" kicked off a nine-year run of hits that
set the standard for pop-R&B crossovers.
Kool & The
Gang's story starts in the Jersey City projects. They were teenagers,
studying Miles Davis albums and
James Brown singles, jamming in
basements, partying for the people in a swirl of
Black consciousness.
In 1969 they made their first record. Still teenagers, and full of
confidence, they named that first record after themselves. Their
confidence and creativity produced a string of loose-but-tight, "fun"
records, culminating in the Pop Chart smash
Jungle Boogie. Kool &
The Gang didn't need a singer then: the horns were the lead voice; the
fans chanted along. Their songs are featured in films like Rocky and
Saturday Night Fever.
